I live in San Francisco now, so updates are a lot more sporadic than they used to be. Gotta move somewhere weirder...

Index/Archive

Because my search bar doesn’t work, and this will make navigation a lot easier. Note — almost every entry has pictures, not just the photoblogs!

79: 3/13/2011 “Home! Also, nationalism” — A stream of pro-USA babble written in a rather delirious state. I’m happy to be home, though
78: 3/12/2011 “Photoblog — Narita” — Some shots from my 24 hours stuck in the airport
77: 3/11/2011 “Earthquake” — Blogging about the Japan earthquakes as they happen. And here had I thought the Match was done…
76: 3/10/2011 “Photoblog — Forbidden City at night” — Had no power in my house, so I went for a bike ride around the Forbidden City. Best idea I’ve had in a while.
75: 3/8/2011 “How to — get sick in China” — Maybe my most bitter post to date. Self-explanatory.
74: 3/7/2011 “Tiananmen flag / anatomy of the Silk Market” — Last Saturday in the country. Sunrise, Silk Street, Sanlitun.
73: 3/6/2011 “Powerless” — Oh god, the puns. They slay.
72: 3/3/2011 “One Week” — I’m almost out of time here. Gonna try to make this weekend a good one.
71: 3/1/2011 “Added an Index” — So meta it hurts.
70: 2/28/2011 “Photoblog — revolutionary McDonalds” — Photoblog #5: I recovered the pictures that the policemen had made me delete.
69: 2/27/2011 “Jasmine Revolution” — Description of the rebellious spirit from the Middle East coming to China to die at the hands of the CCP. Also, getting detained and intimidated by Chinese plainclothes cops for taking too many pictures at the Beijing protest site.
68: 2/26/2011 “Photoblog — North Korea. Plus, Big Announcement” — Photoblog #5. In my opinion one of the most interesting things on the site. Bonus — announcement of the second-annual Cage Match!
67: 2/25/2011 “‘Let’s just get something to drink’” — Playing along with scammers, feigning ignorance until the last possible second.
66: 2/21/2011 “Status Report” — Just a little update on how I’m holding up, progress on my goals, etc.
65: 2/18/2011 “Photoblog — Lantern festival” — Photoblog #4
64: 2/13/2011 “Valentines, Advertising” — A discussion of Chinese consumerism accompanied by pictures of Xi’an’s “Big Wild Goose Pagoda.”
63: 2/12/2011 “Muslim quarter, drum & bell towers” — A bit of a retro-post. Some interesting things and sights in Xi’an. Two cool pictures.
62: 2/8/2011 “Another temple festival” — My favorite temple to date.
61: 2/7/2011 “Good news, bad news” — As of my return to Beijing.
60: 2/7/2011 “Really hope Rayco got power back” — Written from Xi’an. Would be in big trouble if he hadn’t. He did.
59: 2/5/2011 “Terracotta Warriors” — This post grew on me a lot. Plus, lotsa pictures.
58: 2/4/2011 “Misadventures in Xi’an” — Full story of the wallet debacle. Special thanks to Eric.
57: 2/4/2011 “Well, this is problematic” — My wallet just got stolen. I am kinda panicked.
56: 2/3/2011 “Trying to leave Beijing on New Year’s Day“– …is more difficult than you’d expect. Also, fireworks. Wow fireworks.
55: 2/2/2011 “Photoblog — New Year’s Temple Festival” — Photoblog #3
54: 1/31/2011 “Xi’an!” — I decide to go to Xi’an.
53: 1/30/2011 “Cop-Out” — Second encounter with Chinese police. Rant about me being crazy-punctual. Descriptions of Qianmen.
52: 1/26/2011 “Business!” — I have a chinese business card! Also entrepreneur dinner, meeting Deutschebank head of Argentina.
51: 1/23/2011 “Well, define ‘civilized’” — Reflections on public urination.
50: 1/22/2011 “English tutoring” — One of my favorite stories from the summer that I took a while to write down.
49: 1/20/2011 “Photoblog — Daily Commute” — Photoblog #2
48: 1/18/2011 “Do not smile on the subway” — One of my most popular posts, for whatever reason. A story from that day’s commute.
47: 1/17/2011 “A thought on political correctness, sorta” — Thoughts on traditional and modern Chinese stances towards public vs private information.
46: 1/16/2011 “Mrh” — Very short entry. Picture of Chinese takeout.
45: 1/15/2011 “Boys Noize” — My first concert in China. Yelling at taxi drivers.
44: 1/14/2011 “Banquet” — Qunar’s annual banquet. Chaos ensues. Plus, running into the swindler girls in their dumpling shop.
43: 1/12/2011 “Well, alright” — Some comments on language and fluency, and an introduction to a big project that I’m doing for work. Also, my house is pretty much out of heating fuel. Good thing I got that blanket!
42: 1/11/2011 “Photoblog — National Art Museum of China” — Photoblog #1
41: 1/9/2011 “Strangest day to date” — A really weird day. Art museums, locksmiths, cat-filled bars.
40: 1/8/2011 “$40 Pabst and some reflections” — Using an interesting article I found to draw yearders, I then transition into a description of my first real lowish point in the trip, sparked by loneliness. I call for suggestions in the comments and get great feedback.
39: 1/6/2011 “3 Cheers for Materialism!” — A celebration of all things that can be bought and sold. Specifically my new blanket, and Ritz crackers. Also a thought on Wudaokou and why knowing areas beforehand is so incredibly helpful here.
38: 1/5/2011 “Brr” — My room gets really cold, I have no blankets. Bitter post.
37: 1/4/2011 “First day of work” — Why commuting sucks, sarcasm, culture shock 2.0. A somewhat uniquely written post.
36: 1/3/2011 “Oh, they went to lunch” — First encounter with Chinese police. Photo comparison between my yard in Austin and my hutong in Beijing
35: 1/2/2011 “Re-Arrival” — First day back. Very quick rundown of living situation and current status.

~~~ Start of second trip ~~~

34: 12/31/2010 “thoughts goals concerns etc” — self explanatory.
33: 12/27/2010 “Food” — My Grandpa asked me about what I’d be eating, so I answered in a blog. Musings on the Chinese diet, description of Chinese Pizza Huts.
32: 12/24/2010 “Christmas eve!” — Why was I blogging on Christmas eve? Twitter, Austin’s 37th street, pretty pictures. Plus, Shepherd family New Year’s traditions, which are awesome.
31: 12/18/2010 “Home again” — More Ken’s. Announcement of where I’ll be living. I thought I’d be a 5 minute walk from the forbidden city, silly me.
30: 12/13/2010 “Ski trip” — A post from NU’s ski trip in Copper Mountain. Story of how I randomly came into ownership of Ski Blades.
29: 12/10/2010 “Finals done!” — Thought experiment about homestay programs in New Jersey, mainly.
28: 12/1/2010 “Second Tour” — My schedule from finals through spring break.
27: 8/30/2010 “Austin, blog stuff” — Just got home from Match 1. Ken’s donuts! Make some pledges about the blog, which I then break. Official announcement of Match 2.

~~~ End of first trip ~~~

26: 8/29/2010 “heading home” — Little post, written in disbelief.
25: 8/25/2010 “Beijing Happy Valley” — Amusement parks in China. Plus, Hitler matches.
24: 8/23/2010 “Changing location” — Moving from the Tsinghua dorm to a hotel in South Beijing. Plus, the gay brit story.
23: 8/20/2010 “Summer Palace, Beijing Opera” — An attempt at a retroactive post that never came together. Whoops.
22: 8/19/2010 “Zoo” — Pandas! And some thoughts about homelessness and China, and my socioeconomic status. But mainly pandas.
21: 8/18/2010 “Sanlitun, Temple of Heaven” — Two posts in a day to catch up on some stuff that I’d missed. Only sorta works. That Temple of Heaven day was nuts, though. Antique market + acrobatics show also here.
20: 8/18/2010 “Lama / Confucius temples” — First adventure that Dan and I took after the Northwestern-sponsored section of the trip had officially ended.
19: 8/16/2010 “Oh COME ON” — I had to record, upload, and embed a youtube video into this post to capture my fury.
18: 8/15/2010 “Moving out” — Saying goodbye to everyone. Sad post at first, then story of moving into new dorm, then preface for the 3rd stretch of the trip.
17: 8/12/2010 “Finals” — I had finals. Which is why I went 12 days without posting. Only a worthwile post because of the picture of me in Commie + Obamao schwag.
16: 7/31/2010 “Birthday / Jingshan & Beihai Parks” — Title pretty much covers it. Soup dumplings!
15: 7/24/2010 “(Mis)adventures in Shanghai” — One of my favorite entries. Vignettes from the Shanghai trip. Story about sneaking into the World Expo after hours by means of failing to bribe people, and lying a whole whole bunch. Written retrospectively; I was already home from Shanghai at this point. It was my birthday!
14: 7/21/2010 “Shanghai World Expo Photoblog” — You would not BELIEVE the amount of spam comments I get on this entry on a daily basis, even still. Oh and there’s an incredible picture of my brother looking like a fruitcake.
13: 7/15/2010 “Shanghai trip, day 1” — Holy crap three blogs in one day. This one’s good though, my first solo-expedition in the country.
12: 7/15/2010 “Great Wall” — Plus trying to get Northwestern’s president to “Ice” my friend Andrew.
11: 7/15/2010 “I’m still alive” — Oh no, I didn’t blog for a whole week! An empty pledge to come back and update because I’d been busy. Never happened. Might still get around to it…
10: 7/8/2010 “Military Museum, Chamber of Commerce” — Pictures of tanks & statues of Mao. Reflections on the amount of lying that goes down in Chinese museums and a historical example of what I mean from the Long March.
9: 7/5/2010 “Haggling” — A quick how-to guide, and a story about my first experience with the phenomenon.
8: 7/2/2010 “Day-to-day” — An account of a typical day interspersed with plenty of the better Engrish I had enountered
7: 6/30/2010 “Longqing Gorge” — Some pictures of a really pretty gorge, longest escalator in the world, bunjee jumping.
6: 6/28/2010 “Wangfujing” — First of many posts involving this silly street. Eating Scorpions, photographing white people, snack street at night all featured with linked pictures. Qunar interview.
5: 6/26/2010 “Chinese badassery” — Bulleted list of stuff that I was really excited about.
4: 6/24/2010 “Chinese… tomfoolery?” — Bulleted list of stuff that would take some getting used to.
3: 6/23/2010 “Tiananmen Square / Forbidden City” — Some info and pictures, then Mark’s bus-riding adventure
2: 6/22/2010 “Some logistical stuff” — That, plus how we got access to a dining hall that we weren’t supposed to.
1: 6/22/2010 “Arrival / Culture Shock” — First day in Beijing. Quick discussion of study abroad and what I’m trying to accomplish.